Storm-1516 — APT Profile
Storm-1516 is a pro-Russian influence operation first identified in December 2023 by Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub and subsequently named by Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center. It fabricates videos, staged "whistleblower" testimonies, and forged documents, increasingly AI-generated, to discredit Ukraine and its Western backers, attack specific European and American politicians with false criminal or sexual-misconduct allegations, and undermine confidence in elections. Researchers tie the network to Russia's Center for Geopolitical Expertise and to Moscow-based American expatriate John Mark Dougan, and its narratives are frequently amplified via Dougan's "CopyCop" fake-news-site network, though French agency VIGINUM and some other analysts treat Storm-1516 and CopyCop as distinct, closely intertwined operations rather than one and the same.Also tracked as
CopyCop, Neva Flood
IntelFusions coverage (1)
- Russian fakes target a US-backed AI data center in Armenia 2026-08-18 · Nation-State
Vendor research
- The full Insikt Group report Recorded Future
Countries linked to this actor
- Moldova targets